Bennett Named Endowed Chair of Center for Medication Safety and Efficacy

College’s endowed chair tally rises to three

Charles L. Bennett, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.P., has been recruited as the endowed chair of the Center for Economic Excellence (CoEE) in Medication Safety and Efficacy and the Josie M. Fletcher Professor of Pharmacy at the University of South Carolina (USC) campus of the South Carolina College of Pharmacy.

His appointment is supported in part by Health Sciences South Carolina, the Centers of Economic Excellence and the Frank P. and Josie M. Fletcher Endowment.

“Dr. Bennett is an exceptional clinical scientist and national leader in the study of adverse drug effects,” said Joseph T. DiPiro, executive dean of the South Carolina College of Pharmacy (SCCP). “Dr. Bennett’s influence in South Carolina will improve health care in the state and strengthen our health science education.”

Bennett will occupy a chair at the USC campus of the South Carolina College of Pharmacy (SCCP). Like all SCCP faculty, he will hold full faculty appointments at both SCCP founding institutions the University of South Carolina (USC) and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).

The College’s other endowed chairs are John Lemasters, South Carolina Center of Economic Excellence Endowed Chair in Advanced Cellular Technologies and director of the Center of Cell Death, Injury, and Regeneration; and Charles Smith, the Charles and Carol Cooper Chair in Pharmacy and the director of the Drug Discovery Core in the Cancer Drug Discovery Center of Economic Excellence.

The Medication Safety and Efficacy CoEE, which Bennett will lead, works to prevent adverse drug effects (ADEs) and to improve drug safety. The Center was created in 2005 to study the effects of prescription and over-the-counter medications, particularly on children and the elderly. The CoEE also is focused on education and outreach to health care professionals and the general public through the Doris Levkoff Meddin Medication Safety Education Program.

“This Center will be building bridges with other CoEEs and other existing programs in the disciplines of medicine, public health, law, engineering, business, sociology, and anthropology, for example,” Bennett said. “The Center is particularly focused on economic return on investment—and will be developing opportunities that have a high likelihood of commercialization. Training is another important milestone. The end result is that the background and foundation to establish a national treasure for pharmaceutical safety and efficacy will be established.”